Vehicles will soon come fitted with number plates, cost to be included in price: Nitin Gadkari

Representational image (Pic courtesy: PTI)

New Delhi: Vehicles will soon come fitted with number plates and the cost will be included in the four-wheelers' price, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has said.

At present, a vehicle license plate - which is attached to vehicles bearing its official registration number, commonly known as "a number plate" - is procured by various states separately from designated agencies.

"We have taken an important decision. Now, manufacturers will fit the plates and embossing will be done later through the machine," Road Transport, Highways, Shipping, Water Resources and Ganga Rejuvenation Minister Gadkari told PTI.

Naturally, the price of the plate will be included in car's cost and the consumer will get some relief, he said.

The minister said the new technology number plates were intended to bring relief not only to consumers but also to bring in uniformity across states as each state used to buy these plates earlier.

The prices for number plates procured by states ranged from Rs 800 to Rs 40,000, he said.

At present, the licence plate (number plates) number is issued by the district-level Regional Transport Office (RTO) of respective states.

Also, Gadkari said that there would be no compromise in terms of security as far as vehicles were concerned and such norms will be same for all models be it economy or luxury.

"We will not compromise with security. What security norms we have done for economic models, same is for luxury and SUVs," he said.

The government has recently made it mandatory for all cars manufactured after July 2019 to have airbags for drivers and seat-belt reminders besides speeding alert systems beyond 80 kmph and sensors for reverse parking to avoid accidents.

"Motor vehicles of category M1 (cars), manufactured on and after the 1st day of July 2019, shall comply with the additional safety features and its requirements stipulated in AIS-145 -2017," the notification issued by the Road Transport and Highways Ministry has said.

The minister also said that there would be no compromise on pollution front as well and a number of initiatives have been taken in this regard.